Speed Comes from Stability

Speed Comes From Stability, Not Pushing

Here’s the deal. I had a realization that I had never had before, and it is just genius. I learned it at Super PM Boot Camp from some of the wonderful supers and PMs who were there. This is the concept, and really the quote. Speed comes from stability.

Short answer: When a project needs to go faster, don’t push. Throwing labor, money, and materials at it causes batching, context switching, overtime, and chaos. Speed comes from stability: clean, organize, create safety and standard systems, break the project into zones, and keep every trade at the same speed and the same distance apart.

What Happens When We Throw Resources at a Project

I have been railing about pushing for a long time, and about the difference between pushing and creating capacity. I have written about that before, so I will not go through all of it again. But when I think about adding money, labor, and materials to a project, I am really critical of it, because I believe it is a very big mistake. It leads to more pushing.

When you start stacking and throwing people at a project, you really lose production. Here is how the slide happens.

• You start batching instead of doing one-piece flow.
• You have context switching, which is compounded by too large a team size and the added complexity of communication.
• You change leaders and change crew composition.
• You end up working overtime.
• Once you are working overtime, you stop putting work in correctly.
• Then you stop removing roadblocks, and the project descends into chaos.

What Pushing Looks Like

Here is the definition of pushing that I keep coming back to. Pushing is any of the following.

• Throwing manpower at the problem.
• Throwing money at the problem.
• Making workers work too fast.
• Working in unsafe and unclean conditions.
• Working with too much dependency.
• Not having enough time in the schedule.
• Having batch sizes that are too large or too small.
• Working without proper preparation.
• Throwing materials at the problem.
• Becoming frantic so that your boss can be proud of you.

I have railed on these things for good reason.

Pushing Creates Overburden

I also finally understood, from the Lean community, some of the wisdom of how we encounter problems on a project site. Overburden really happens when workers are being pushed. They are going too fast, working too much overtime, working in too many areas, and dealing with too much context switching. The zone density is too high. There are not enough people for the task. There is fatigue from working conditions. Workers are working beyond their training, or there is a lack of needed resources. The work is too complex, and there is a lack of breaks and buffers.

I have constantly told superintendents that you cannot do that and respect workers. In fact, it is insane. If somebody says, let’s just throw labor, materials, and money at the problem, and let’s start pushing and overburdening people, that is most assuredly going to extend the project life cycle, the total project duration. It is also going to hurt people, and it is going to cost a whole heck of a lot of money.

What I Had Not Connected Until Now

What I had not connected until now is that speed comes from stability. So when a superintendent says, okay Jason, you want me to stop pushing and stop overburdening people, what do you want me to do? Here is my answer.

• I want you to clean.
• I want you to organize.
• I want you to create safety.
• I want you to create standard systems.
• I want you to break your project into zones.
• I want you to make sure you are going the same speed.

I have been repeating this concept that flow comes when trades are working the same long-term plan, going the same direction, in the same sequence, adding the same amount of value, doing the same amount of work in each zone, going the same speed, the same distance apart. If you want to go fast, you create stability. You stabilize the direction. You stabilize the sequence. You stabilize the value and the work packaging of the trades. You stabilize the level of effort in each of the zones. You stabilize the speed. You stabilize the distance apart.

Stabilize Against Waste, Unevenness, and Overburden

You will also stabilize by removing the eight wastes, which are overproduction, inventory, unused talent, waiting, overprocessing, motion, transportation, and defects. You will stabilize by preventing unevenness. You will stabilize by watching for overburden and preventing it. And you will stabilize by implementing foreman and super control, leveling work, removing roadblocks, and installing a quality product.

We have guides and graphics for all of these things. It is a genius system, and I am not just bragging here. I want supers to understand something I have never explained before, and I apologize for that. If you want to go fast, you stabilize.

When You Need to Pick Up the Pace

As soon as we say, I need to pick up the pace, we do not start pushing, because that creates more chaos and variation. We stabilize. I know this might need a little more work and a little more description as we go down the road.

What I want to challenge everybody to think about is this. How can you stabilize to go fast? What are the things on your project that you can do tomorrow to make a real difference?

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. Pick one thing on your project that you can stabilize tomorrow, whether it is the direction, the sequence, the work packaging, the level of effort in each zone, the speed, or the distance apart.

Bottom line: Speed comes from stability, not pushing.

On we go.

FAQ

What does “speed comes from stability” mean?

It means that when you want to go faster, you stabilize the system instead of pushing. Pushing creates more chaos and variation, while stabilizing the direction, sequence, work packaging, level of effort, speed, and distance apart creates flow.

Why is adding labor, money, and materials a mistake?

Stacking people on a project leads to batching, context switching, changed leaders and crew compositions, and overtime. People stop putting work in correctly and stop removing roadblocks, and the project descends into chaos.

What should a superintendent do instead of pushing?

Clean, organize, create safety, create standard systems, break the project into zones, and make sure everyone is going the same speed.

What does it mean to stabilize against the eight wastes?

It means working to remove overproduction, inventory, unused talent, waiting, overprocessing, motion, transportation, and defects, along with preventing unevenness and watching for overburden.

People Also read:

First Stabilize, then Optimize!
What Stability Looks Like
Stability & Standardization
Flowing Together on a Takt Time & Pull

Offering: Super PM Boot Camp

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